Each year, millions of young girls all over the world tune into the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show to watch in awe as slender 6-foot women strut down the runway wearing nearly no clothing. The next morning, these same girls go to school and gush with their friends about how “skinny” and “beautiful” the VS Angels are. What is never said out loud is how each and every girl is made to feel a little more insecure about their own body type that day. This feeling drove Lane Bryant to create the #ImNoAngel lingerie campaign featuring a video with plus-size models.

"The Lane Bryant #IMNOANGEL initiative celebrates women of all shapes and sizes by redefining society's traditional notion of sexy with a powerful core message: ALL women are sexy," the brand stated. This campaign takes a direct stab at Victoria’s Secret, who calls all their models “Angels” and even makes the models change their twitter handles when they sign with VS. Women around the world are celebrating the #ImNoAngel campaign as it highlights each model’s curves and body type. Both members of the famous group “Salt-N-Pepa” have openly stated that they support the campaign and even spoke about it on CNN.

The core message behind this campaign is that all women are beautiful, no matter what their bodies look like.

When asked why it’s important for young Bullis girls to see this campaign, Emily Renkey (‘15) said, “It gives them examples of real people to look up to. You need realistic goals when you’re young, girls need to know that they can be healthy when they have real women to look at with real bodies. Not everyone looks like a Victoria’s Secret model”. Young women often struggle with their own body image in high school, which makes this campaign so influential for them. What is important to remember is that character is what makes a person beautiful, not merely appearance.